Chris Christie, Rodney Frelinghuysen team up on Sandy aid

When Katrina came ashore in 2005, it was met by a solid phalanx of Gulf state Republicans with immense power over the machinery of federal appropriations. In the span of 10 days, a $51.8 billion aid package cleared Congress and was signed by President George W. Bush, a Texan himself and red-faced over his administration’s response to the storm.

Nothing remotely like this has happened in the month since Hurricane Sandy — in part because of post-Katrina reforms. But the Northeast’s damage estimates keep mounting: the latest from New Jersey on Friday evening was $29.4 billion. The White House is drafting a supplemental aid request. Pressure is growing for action before the new year.

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It’s a reckoning that will put a premium on what’s become a weak Republican bench in Congress for states like New York and New Jersey — and the Northeast more generally.

Thirty years ago, four of the top 10 Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee were from the Northeast. Today there’s only one, and for all the harping, it’s little wonder why New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was quick to embrace President Barack Obama’s help prior to the elections.

Indeed, the Katrina experience isn’t lost on Christie, a Republican who has reached out to former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and tapped McKinsey & Co. to give him credible numbers to take to Washington. And when the governor met Tuesday in Trenton with New Jersey’s congressional delegation, the first lawmaker he called on was a press-shy, slightly built blueblood, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), who just happens to chair the House Appropriations panel that funds the Army Corps of Engineers.

“The agenda was the governor spoke and then Rodney. It was entirely appropriate,” Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) told POLITICO. “It’s a bit of luck, an act of providence he is there.”

“I think Christie’s relationship with Obama will help us just as Bush’s embarrassment helped the Gulf states after Katrina. But if Rodney wasn’t there, I might be giving you a different answer.”

None of this diminishes the region’s substantial Democratic clout.

Andrews himself has the ear of House leaders. New York’s Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is the favorite to become the new ranking Democrat on House Appropriations. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) — albeit not the power he once was — sits on Senate Appropriations. Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) each has a claim on Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

But because of the anticipated cost and often divisive fights over funding offsets, any sustained recovery effort needs bipartisan support. And Frelinghuysen stands out as the region’s best bet because of his committee seat — and the moderate tone he sets.

For New Jersey, his responsibility for the Corps’s budget is a natural fit, given the devastation to the state’s shoreline and dunes. Equally important, the 66-year-old lawmaker is next in line to take over the House appropriations defense panel, a post that controls over a half-trillion dollars in annual spending affecting all corners of the nation.